10 Great Movies That Had AWFUL Test Screenings
6. Sunset Boulevard
Though largely accepted to be one of the greatest films ever made today, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard test-screened horribly.
It didn't help that the film originally opened with a more fantastical opening sequence set in a morgue, in which murder victim Joe Gillis (William Holden) details the particulars of his death to his fellow corpses.
This sequence was met with laughter rather than intrigue from the audience, and left viewers unsure of whether the film was meant to be a comedy or drama.
Following the dumpster fire of a screening it got even worse, as one attendee reportedly told Wilder that they "never saw such a pile of shit in all [their] life."
Two additional test screenings elicited the same bemused response from audiences, and so Wilder went back and switched out the morgue opening for the ultimately iconic poolside one instead.
And like that, a masterpiece was born.